Category: extinct

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People Break Down The Most Likely Reasons Humanity Will Go Extinct

We all know the story of the dinosaurs extinction. An asteroid hit the earth and caused great environmental impact that wiped out their world.

When we think about our world today and what could possibly cause the end of human life, there’s so many more possibilities beyond an asteroid.

Some scientists predict it could happen in 100 years due to the crumbling political and social climates, while others believe it will be climate related which places the end of days anywhere between 5,100 to 7.8 million years from now.

Redditor TwoTimeToj wanted to know:

“What is the most likely to cause humanity’s extinction?”

This question stirred up quite the debate.

Our own doing.

“Humanity.” ~ LopensLeftArm

“This reminds me of the time last year May 2020. When due to lockdown, a lot of pollution went away, and then everyone on the internet declared: ‘We, humans are the real virus.’” ~ tadxb

“It’s not worth arguing because that alone will bring us to the brink. its us fighting ourselves.” ~ Moglist

“I like to think that when the baby boomer generation currently in charge of companies and politics all die off, we’ll be in a better world because the millennials will take over who have more realistic views and understandings and actually seem to give a sh*t about the future, having had such a hard time for their own futures.”

“But at the same time I know it’s just a dream. ‘Man, I’ve had it so sh*t for so long but now I’m in charge and can screw everyone else over to live a really comfortable, extravagant life I always wanted? Why change the wheel when I can abuse it too and live on a beach driving fast cars?’”

“Aaaaaaand nothing’s changed. Big f*cking surprise.” ~ Dynasty2201

“‘We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning, since the world’s been turning.’ – Billy Joel” ~ Guardanapkins

Some think it’s not that easy.

“I think people really underestimate what it would take to actually completely exterminate our entire species. We already bounced back from a population collapse down to under 10,000 once, we could do so again.”

“Nuclear war, ecological collapse, incurable disease; I highly doubt that any of them could kill everyone. Even if it’s just a few isolated pockets in the outback or the jungle that survive, that’s still not extinction.”

“Honestly, I think it would take a cosmic catastrophe (asteroid/comet impact, gamma ray burst, etc) to completely obliterate us and that assumes that it occurs soon enough that we don’t have viable populations outside of Earth.”

“I’m not for a minute saying that ‘Everything will be fine.’ If we nuke ourselves back to the stone age, or completely alter the planet’s climate such that agriculture becomes impossible, then of course human civilization would probably never recover.”

“The questions is explicitly outright extinction, which I think is big step further.” ~ GalacticNexus

“What’s the event that brought us down to 10,000 if I may ask?” ~ madmenrus1

“I believe it was a supervolcano eruption which initiated a mini ice age, correct me if I’m wrong.” ~ elik2226

A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“A bad-tempered, bureaucratic alien species of space engineers deciding to construct a hyperspace bypass through our solar system.” ~ -o0_0o-

“I mean, the plans have been on display in Alpha Centauri for quite some time.” ~ itsf*ckingpizzatime

“On display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.’” ~ PeterLemonjellow

Genetic modification.

“I’ve always thought that humans will begin modifying DNA and making cyborg-like modifications to the human body until we reach the point that the concept of human will be so diluted that we will have to call ourselves another way, leading to the extinction of humanity as we know it.” ~ -exekiel-

“You should read the book Homo Deus basically the same idea.” ~ ZeusFarous

“The Omnissiah would be proud.” ~ ctank01

Climate change.

“Climate change, pandemics, etc will probably just make a dent of a smaller or bigger size. For an extinction level event, there’s fewer options:”

  • “Asteroid impact.”
  • “Global thermonuclear war.”
  • “Gamma ray burst.”

“…that kind of thing.” ~ arkaydee

“How about solar flares? What if there comes a solar flare that fries all electronics?”

“Suddenly, we’d have no transportation, no food because it relies on transportation, no running water, no pacemakers, etc.?” ~ 101st_kilometre

“We won’t go extinct, it will just collapse society.” ~ Elbonio

“Back to stone age.”

“Exciting.” ~ Entry-

“It won’t be the stone age. There is a lot of accumulated knowledge that would allow us to be way better off than any time prior to the 1800’s.”

“Just the idea of washing your hands before a medical procedure was revolutionary and not recognized by doctors until after the mid 1800’s.” ~ Alatain

“Can’t wait to get back to the good old days, when you cut your lawn using a giant lobster, and your shower was an elephant that complained a lot!” ~ TheAllyCrime

“If tech suddenly went awry there would still be plenty of people able to live in local farms. It would destroy our civilization but people would survive.”

“The only thing that would truly send humans extinct is the earth becoming entirely uninhabitable for us and the food we eat, like an asteroid boiling our oceans or something like that.” ~ tredli

Probably something so ridiculous.

“Probably the dumbest f*cking thing you can imagine.” ~ jks_david

“Like yogurt or giving cats opposable thumbs in love death and robots.” ~ fox_office

“The yogurt will leave us behind.” ~ uncalledforgiraffe

“At least we will be cultured.” ~ AdAny287

A rogue planet.

“Astronomical phenomenon like a rogue planet, or an asteroid.” ~ Tink2013

“I’m apparently fuzzy on the definition of a rogue planet. I believed they were simply planets that formed outside of or somehow escaped a star system.”

“Simply a planet without a star. How might that bring about humanities extinction? Through a collision?” ~ QiKS

“If one came close enough to disrupt our orbit around the sun and kick us out of the ‘goldilocks’ zone, we could die by heat or cold.” ~ spauldhaliwal

Ancient bacteria.

“Polar ice cap melts, releases bacteria from 5 million years ago and it’s p*ssed.” ~ tuscabam

“There’s a really good book about this. The trick is that it kills the livestock as well, transmitted by insects.” ~ KarmaEeleon

One just to lighten the mood.

“A.I. And by ‘A.I.’ I mean Auto Insurance.” ~ 6_String_Slinger

“Flo takes her job seriously. If you’re not on the plan, plan to die.” ~ yankstraveler

Whether it’s climate change or nuclear war, the end of humanity may come one day.

Hopefully, none of us will be around to see it.

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People Offer Theories About How They Believe Humans Will Become Extinct

It’s very unpleasant to think about death, extinction, or the world coming to an end, but I will say that it definitely makes for some good conversation.

Will it be a nuclear war? A plague? An asteroid that hits Earth and wipes us all out?

It could be any number of things…

Here’s what people on AskReddit had to say…

1. A scary thought.

“I have a feeling we’re eventually headed towards nuclear fallout or chemical destruction.

I believe it is inevitably China Vs the United States (and allies like Australia).

I also believe Putin is sitting back with the popcorn at the moment.”

2. Sickness spreads…

“I think it will be a pandemic, much like we are having now, only more lethal.

I’ve heard several people say that COVID isn’t the big one, but it’s going to expose how unprepared the world is for the big one.”

3. Poetic justice.

“Because the majority of the population choose to believe oil CEOs with everything to lose instead of scientists with no reason to lie.

Pretty fitting way to go honestly, I hope the climate change deniers keep on denying it up til the very end, that’d be poetic justice for humanity.”

4. Inching closer to it.

“Depletion of resources, destruction of the environment, and the wars that will result from those things.

I don’t think humanity will ever get to a sci-fi future where we’re exploring the stars and colonizing other planets. The resources on this planet are very finite and they will not last thousands of years at the rate we’re using them. Even 10,000 years is less than a blink of an eye on a cosmic scale.

I think the next 100, maybe 200 years are going to be the peak for our civilization. As the critical resources necessary for technological advancements dry up and environmental destruction creates refugees/migration/starvation on a global scale, we’ll basically destroy ourselves in the resulting wars.

We might not actually go extinct until many millennia after that, but civilization as we know it will be over.”

5. All kinds of calamities.

“Absolutely we will go extinct.

Rising temperatures will eventually push many places around the earth to be uninhabitable. Combine that with the decreased ability to grow grains at scale needed to sustain the over-bloated human population, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Eventually large wars will break out over the very scarce resources that the earth is able to provide.

It’s called loss of habitat due to resource exhaustion. Many species experience it and it leads to their extinction, and humans are just another species.”

6. Poisoning ourselves.

“Pollution.

Especially the hormone disruptive ones. They won’t kill us instantly, but each generation will be more affected by them than the last, making it harder and harder to reproduce.

Might not happen this century or even the next few centuries, as there’s still plenty of people to reproduce, even at a lower rate. But it’s already affecting people , and the problem will worsen generation by generation.”

7. A simple act.

“Through some act of stupidity in all honesty.

With all the dangerous diseases and viruses various governments all over the world are experimenting with at any given moment, all it takes is one screw up to have some catastrophic results

And the current pandemic has shown that the general population is either unable or unwilling to respond to a disease or virus of significance.”

8. The crazies.

“Most likely nuclear war or some other form of military action.

Mutual assured destruction only applies to people who are afraid to die.

Once the crazies figure out how to build something extremely destructive, they will set of a chain of events that can’t be undone.”

9. Stupidity.

“Our own stupidity (in America anyway).

Too many think covid-19 is a hoax by (all?) The government(s) to remove our freedoms….the whole world is going through this, idiots, not just one country.

America’s President didn’t get with all the leaders of the world and convince them to shut down absolutely everything worldwide just to take American freedoms.

But yes, some of our rights are being trodden on, I’m not saying its not happening, but it’s a side effect, not the cause.”

10. Hell hole.

“Overpopulation, honestly.

The insane amount of people will outnumber the amount of food the earth can produce and it will become a hell hole.”

11. Keep an eye on it.

“Let’s watch out for South Korea.

They made a study and it says Korean people will be extinct in 300 years because newer generations ditch marriage and having a family.”

12. Scary scenarios.

“We will either kill ourselves in war or burn out the Earth’s resources and cause such heavy global warming and pollution that life at our level cannot physically survive anymore.

Slowly, people will be unable to successfully raise children until we all filter out.”

13. Could happen…

“Unpopular opinion: I don’t think it‘s gonna be our fault.

More something like a comet hitting us, the sun exploding or something like that.”

14. Uh oh…

“Genetic manipulation will become popular in the future and we accidentally or purposefully create a new species that is better than humans.

I expect it will be a human that makes the modification to themselves to create the new species.”

15. The end of days.

“It will probably not be war because we are to smart for that so maybe something from space like a huge meteor or the sun turning into a red giant if we are still on this planet in the next billions of years.”

Well, that was certainly uplifting!

How about you?

In the comments, tell us how you think human beings will become extinct.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The post People Offer Theories About How They Believe Humans Will Become Extinct appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Talk About How Humans Will Become Extinct

It’s kind of scary, but you’ve probably considered it at one point or another.

How will human beings become extinct?

What will be the final catalyst that wipes us off the planet for good?

Are you ready to do a little thinking about our existence?

Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say about it.

1. Oh, boy…

“A highly contagious virus designed to make its host infertile without presenting any other symptoms escapes from a lab and infects everyone.”

2. A hot take.

“As a long term optimist, my favorite is evolution.

As we expand out into space through the eons eventually we diverge and evolve into new species, and what we consider human is extinct.

You can also view AI as a version of evolution and count that as well, but I personally think we can coexist with an AI we create.”

3. WAR.

“It’s got to be war.

We literally have a weapon that can wipe out an entire country, now multiply the amount of that weapon by thousands.

One day countries and leaders will face a breaking point through clashing ideologies and before we even knew it, we already fucked ourselves over.”

4. Irreparable damage.

“By irreparably damaging our biosphere.

Takes a biosphere to evolve and sustain a complex living organism like us, destroy that and we probably won’t last long.”

5. That’s not pleasant.

“Slow and painful.

Slowly losing clean water until we’re a desert planet and we die.”

6. That’s not good.

“I’d say we’ll either kill each other for resources due to overpopulation or (which by now I think is more likely) a pandemic worse than the coronavirus will collapse health and economic systems throughout the world which will lead to supply shortages then maybe to war.”

7. Something to think about…

“Humans will biologically die out. I think at we could maybe reach a point where sentimental value of being a human is slowly gone in favour of something else, like being a machine, uploading consciousness.

We may be our real selves but digital, or just a program with personality effectively killing the host and stealing their memory, while retaining their information, soulless.

Either way, it won’t be human.”

8. Human error.

“I think we will make a mistake. Something like, we send the majority of the population to another planet, but they crash. Or, we couldn’t get to another planet in time.

Humans make mistakes. It’s about time we make a big one.”

9. Or maybe a machine?

“It could even be machine error. In 1983, at the height of the Cold War (during Reagan’s era), the USSR detected multiple incoming ICBM missiles allegedly launched by the US.

Turns out the system mistook a particular alignment of sunlight for nukes. Had it not been for Stanislav Petrov, a USSR officer who decided against retaliation despite all evidence pointing towards an attack, we would have had full blown nuclear war and humanity may very well be extinct today.”

10. This is scary.

“Honestly, a massive asteroid. (I’m talking miles in diameter).

I mean nuclear war is devastating but just think about the colossal amount of energy released during such an impact event (billions of nukes).

The worst part? There’s pretty much nothing we can do about it with our current technology.”

11. Our fault.

“We’ll probably damage the environment to a point where we can no longer live in it.

In the last 100 years we’ve been burning through Earth’s resources like we have another planet to move to.”

12. Two theories.

“Two likely options:

Climate collapse.

Might not be the direct cause of human extinction, but it would certainly prompt a lot of candidates for human extinction.

Nations going to war with each other as their land goes underwater or becomes otherwise uninhabitable, wars over the last remaining resources, increased temperatures across the globe result in more heatstroke deaths and tropical diseases spreading across the globe.

In that scenario, either nuclear war or uncontrolled disease kills us all.

Massive collapse of technology.

A coronal mass ejection cripples all technology on Earth- life support systems, planes, power plants, anything more complex than a radio is rendered unusable. Within hours, millions are dead. As supply chains collapse across the globe, famine becomes a part of life for many.

With today’s level of dependence on technology, it would knock us back to being an agrarian species. And the more technologically advanced we get, the worse a coronal mass ejection becomes.

Imagine a time when most humans have complex cybernetics- a coronal mass ejection would literally kill billions as their body’s electronic components failed. It would deal us a blow we could never recover from.”

13. As simple as that.

“Stupidity.

Or I should say the rapidly increasing gulf between common and academic knowledge.

Science is moving faster than the average person’s intellect because we have coddled being fucking morons for decades now.

Look at how Covid has been handled in the scientific vs. common communities and imagine that level of dissonance in an even greater threat.”

14. I’m sorry I’ll miss this.

“An asteroid composed of dinosaurs will crash into the Earth and they’ll eat us all.”

People sure are creative, aren’t they?

Okay, now we want to hear from you!

If you had to guess, how do you think human beings will become extinct?

Let us know in the comments!

The post People Talk About How Humans Will Become Extinct appeared first on UberFacts.

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The Nearly Extinct Northern White Rhino Might Live on Thanks to Lab-Created Embryos

Finally, some good news!

For all the destruction and mayhem that humans have caused around the planet, sometimes we actually do some good things, too. Things like preventing (hopefully) the complete extinction of the northern white rhino.

The last male northern white rhino died in 2018, and only two females, Fatu and Najin, remain of the species. Neither of them are capable of bearing a child. It was believed that once the two females passed away, that would be the end of the northern white rhino.

But scientists recently announced they were able to extract immature eggs from the two remaining females, and the eggs were flown to a laboratory in Italy.

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BREAKING NEWS – WE NOW HAVE TWO NORTHERN WHITE RHINO EMBRYOS! We are happy to announce that two northern white rhino embryos have been successfully matured and fertilised. This development marks a turning point in the race to save the northern white rhino from near extinction. The two embryos were created using eggs collected from Fatu, the youngest of the two northern white rhinos and frozen sperm from Suni a deceased northern white rhino male. The embryos are now stored in liquid nitrogen and will be transferred into a surrogate southern white rhino female in the near future. To make this procedure a reality, Fatu’s eggs were injected with Suni’s sperm while Najin’s eggs were injected with Saut’s sperm. Saut’s semen was of really poor quality and scientists had to thaw additional samples to find viable sperms for the procedure. Unfortunately, Najin’s eggs did not make it to a viable embryo despite the fact that one egg initiated segmentation. This landmark effort was achieved at Avantea Laboratories in Cremona, Italy thanks to Prof. Cesare Galli and his team. We have only gotten this far because of your unending support. To be part of the journey towards making a northern white rhino, go to donate.olpejetaconservancy.org/projects/sudan ? ? Jan Zwilling, Ami Vitale, Cesare Galli @kenyawildlifeservice @tourism_wildlifeke @leibnizizw @biorescue_project @bmbf.bund @leibnizgemeinschaft @safariparkdvurkralove #OlPejeta #NorthernWhiteRhino #OvumPickUp #NorthernWhiteRhinoRecovery #NajinandFatu

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The eggs were then injected with sperm from two dead male northern white rhinos. Only two of the eggs from one of the rhinos developed into viable embryos, and they were immediately frozen. Because Fatu and Najin can’t carry a pregnancy, the embryos will be transferred to a surrogate mother—a southern white rhinoceros.

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With Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos, unable to carry a pregnancy, the future of the northern white rhino species solely depends on artificial reproduction. ? Over the past few years, scientists have been working very hard on perfecting a procedure for both harvesting and fertilisation in vitro. ? The successful harvest of 10 eggs from the northern white rhinos yesterday (August 22nd, 2019) means that scientists are now closer to saving the species from complete extinction. ? @amivitale ——————————————————————— @kenyawildlifeservice @tourism_wildlifeke @leibnizizw @biorescue_project @bmbf.bund @leibnizgemeinschaft @safariparkdvurkralove ? #OlPejeta #NorthernWhiteRhino #OvumPickUp #NorthernWhiteRhinoRecovery #NajinandFatu #SaveOurRhinos #OnlyTwoLeft #EndExtinction

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Jan Stejskal, Director of Communication and International Projects at the zoo in the Czech Republic where Najin and Fatu were born, said:

“Five years ago it seemed like the production of a northern white rhino embryo was [an] almost unachievable goal — and today we have them. The technique for collection of eggs was developed in cooperation with many European zoos and we are happy that this unique cooperation can continue even with attempts at successful embryo transfer.”

Scientists must now transfer the embryos to a surrogate mother and track the embryos’ development into fetuses. From there, scientists still face an enormous uphill climb—the species lacks genetic diversity, and there are very few ways to get it back once there are so few individuals left. Plus, rhinos are slow developing creatures, so to rebuild the population in any meaningful way will take decades.

Sadly, the northern white rhino reached this point mainly due to poaching—they were targeted for their horns, which, though they have no medicinal properties of any sort, are highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine.

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Photographer Spends Two Years Taking Heartbreaking Photos of Soon-to-Be Extinct Animals

The plight of endangered animals is a very real one, and it’s largely our own fault. Thankfully, while much of the world wrings its hands in apathy, there are people like British photographer Tim Flach – a man who has made it his mission to document this plight and raise awareness around animals facing extinction.

Flach spent two years around the habitats of endangered animals, photographing their everyday lives. The images he’s created are both extremely powerful and heartbreaking.

A recent U.N. report stated that a staggering one million species of animals and plants are now facing extinction, which makes Flach’s work even more important.

Here are 15 examples of Flach’s photos. You can order his book Endangered on Amazon.

1. Philippine Eagle

2. Iberian Lynx

3. Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey

4. Axolotl

5. Hyacinth Macaw

6. Snow White Tiger

7. Shoebill

8. Snow Leopard

9. Saiga

10. Polar Bear

11. Hippopotamus

12. Pied Tamarin

13. Sea Angels

14. Yellow Eyed Tree Frog

15. Crowned Sifaka

Check out Flach’s website and his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages to keep up to date on his incredible work.

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